The National Ready Mixed Concrete Association (NRMCA) Safety Contest aims to foster safe practices at ready-mixed concrete plants across the nation. It is now NRMCA's most popular award recognition program.

The program is designed to be simple, while providing meaningful and fair criteria to recognize individual plants for their commitment to safety as evidenced by their record. The secondary goal is to gather thorough, accurate accident statistics. The data establishes industry benchmarks for safe operations. The 2008 Safety Contest is open to all plants operated by NRMCA member companies. THE CONCRETE PRODUCER co-sponsors the contest.

Confidentiality

The association strictly keeps all data confidential. After verification of all data entry and calculations, NRMCA destroys the entry forms and specific company information once a final report has been drafted.

Categories

A change in the qualifications for categories was incorporated into the 2008 Safety Contest. Previously, each category was based on the number of ready mixed concrete trucks that were stationed at each plant. In today's industry, unlike just a few years ago, it is very common, if not the norm, to have trucks that service two, three, or more plants.

Previously, the survey instructed producers to estimate the percentage of their fleet that could be theoretically assigned to a particular plant or if the number of trucks fluctuated significantly, the average number was used. To promote fairness, the category definition was changed to number of cubic yards produced annually at a given plant. The plants are divided into three categories:

Category A—less than 50,000 yards produced annually

Category B—50,000 -100,000 yards produced annually

Category C—more than 100,000 yards produced annually

Basis for winning entries

The following information was solicited on the entry form:

Total Number of Cubic Yards Shipped During 2007 from that particular plant. This was used to not only determine category but to also level the playing field within a particular category, assuming that more yardage shipped produced a greater risk for accidents.

Number of Lost Time Accidents at each Plant (LTA). This includes all accidents that caused one or more employees to miss a complete shift.

Number of DOT Reportable Accidents (RA). These were mixer truck accidents where only the mixer driver was at fault.

Number of fatalities (F) that occurred in accidents that the company employees were at fault was submitted.

A safety score was calculated from these factors. The safety score or Accident Frequency Rate (AFR) is the sum of one, plus lost time accidents, DOT Reportable Accidents, and Fatalities divided by Concrete Shipped in 100,000-yard increments.

An Excellence in Safety certificate is awarded to plants that are equal to or above the 70th percentile in each category. Also, to not give unfair disadvantage to plants with no accidents in 2007 yet scored lower than the 70th percentile because they produce less concrete within a particular category, an Excellence in Safety certificate was awarded.